| Human Rights Story (6): Shylock | | 2008-08-27 14:37:41 | | (source)
From Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Shylock’s Speech to Antonio (I’ve added a “translation” into present-day English):
Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances.
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (86): Human Rights and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs | | 2008-08-27 03:52:46 | |
(source)
Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values. Abraham Maslow
Economic theory is or was dominated by the assumption of the homo economicus, the human being [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (85): Prejudice and Allport’s Scale | | 2008-08-25 05:02:27 | | (source)
People who are aware of, and ashamed of, their prejudices are well on the road to eliminating them. Gordon Allport
Gordon Allport, a psychologist, created Allport’s Scale in 1954. It’s a measure of the manifestation of prejudice in a society. The scale contains 5 stages of prejudice, ranked by the increasing harm they produce.
Stage 1: antilocution
(source)
Antilocution [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (52): The Laws of God, the Laws of Man | | 2008-08-23 05:04:14 | | (source)
The laws of God, the laws of man, A.E. Housman
The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (98): Overlegislation and the Big State | | 2008-08-21 11:37:24 | | (source, Pavel Constantin)
I agree that a complex contemporary society needs a complex system of law, and I’m the last one to adopt a libertarian philosophy in which the state is evil (necessary evil or not) and should be kept as small as possible. I accept that the state has a role to play in poverty reduction [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (51): Grenadier | | 2008-08-21 01:51:13 | | (source)
Grenadier, A.E Housman
The Queen she sent to look for me,
The sergeant he did say,
`Young man, a soldier will you be
For thirteen pence a day?’
For thirteen pence a day did I
Take off the things I wore,
And I have marched to where I lie,
And I shall march no more.
My mouth is dry, my [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (55): China, Confucianism and Authoritarianism | | 2008-08-20 04:32:04 | | Confucianism, the traditional Chinese ethical and philosophical system based on the teachings of Confucius (551 BCE - 479 BCE), is often blamed for the lack of freedom and the authoritarian and anti-democratic form of government in China. This post examines the merits of this attack.
Confucianism is not a religion, although many believe it is, perhaps because of [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (54): The Indian Caste System | | 2008-08-19 06:18:24 | | (source)
In India, a caste is a hereditary group in a traditionally and rigidly stratified society. People belong to a caste because they are born into one, because their parents belong to one. Mobility is minimal.
The different castes each have a ranking in a social hierarchy, or a social status, and people from lower ranked castes [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (84): Libertarianism | | 2008-08-12 02:45:53 | | (source, source)
Why is avoiding coercion a supreme end that dominates all other ends? What makes noncoercion superior to justice, equality, freedom, security, happiness, and other values? If any of these ends are superior to noncoercion, then would not coercion be justified if it were the sole means in some situations for achieving the superior value? [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (83): What To Do With the Intolerant? | | 2008-08-12 02:45:03 | | (source)
The liberties of the intolerant may persuade them to a belief in freedom. This persuasion works on the psychological principle that those whose liberties are protected by and who benefit from a just constitution will, other things equal, acquire an allegiance to it over a period of time. John Rawls
I’ve written before about the vulnerability [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Beijing’s Olympics and Human Rights | | 2008-08-10 22:13:00 | | There are a couple of reasons as to why I shall not be watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Human RightsSince the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the human rights and China issue has divided many. While some have leapt to China’s defense citing exaggerated claims by an “unfair media” fact is, the sources documenting abuse are many, including the U.S. State Department's annual People's Republic of China human rights report and Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports, which consistently document the PRC's abuses in violation of internationally recognized norms.Only last week we read about Annie Yang’s plight. Her story is one of many describing disturbing details suffered in labour camps that incidentally are located only miles from many Olympic venues. Annie was forced to sit straight for weeks on an uneven surface in a torture method referred to as “sitting on a high chair’.“Every day, one was forced to sit for over 18 hours a day with a strict posture – ... | | By: American Interests | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (53): Good Governance | | 2008-08-10 06:23:59 | | (source)
Bad governance is a cause of underdevelopment, poverty, war and human rights violations. Major donors and international financial institutions are increasingly basing their aid and loans on the condition that the recipient countries reform their systems so that these conform to the requirements of good governance.
Good governance means a good way to take and implement [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Beijing Olympics & China’s Human Rights Record | | 2008-08-08 18:21:55 | | A nation of 1.3 billion people welcomes the world as it hosts the Beijing Olympics which started on 08/08/08. (Photo Credit: AP) Beaming with national pride, China pulls out a rousing 3 ½ -hour...
You are part of the growing UP Ibalon Web Community (www.upibalon.com).
... | | By: UP Ibalon Bicol | | |
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| The United States Chide China Over Human Rights | | 2008-08-07 02:55:39 | | Ah yes, the global model of human rights, headed by the angelic and pristine figurehead of G.W Bush. I gather we’re supposed to bob our heads in assent with a healthy bout of self-righteous condescension. We (the western world) have pointed the stick at China over Sudan, frowned (yes frowned, since we haven’t done anything [...]
... | | By: Faithless Elector | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (52): The War on Terror | | 2008-08-06 08:12:43 | | The War on Terror, started by the US government as a response to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and later joined by other governments, has had and continues to have grave consequences for the human rights of their citizens and of citizens of other countries. This is a high price for an uncertain gain.
However, [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (97): Corruption | | 2008-08-04 09:31:01 | | (source)
Forms of corruption
Corruption can take on many forms:
From limited competition when awarding government contracts to the setting up of wasteful mega-projects designed specifically for the corruption opportunities these can yield.
From small bribes by ordinary citizens “in order to get things done” to larger payments as a means to escape criminal justice.
From the nepotism of a [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (51): Apostasy | | 2008-08-04 04:44:09 | | Apostasy (from the Greek word for defection) is the explicit and formal abandonment or renunciation of one’s religion. The word has a pejorative connotation and is mostly used by the adherents or dignitaries of the former religion of the apostate. It is used as a condemnation. Most if not all religions consider defection a sin, [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| CfA: Human Rights School, Prishtina, 1-9.2008 | | 2008-07-28 11:26:00 | | Call for application
Youth Initiative for Human Rights office in Kosovo, is organizing 6th Human Rights
School.
This Human Rights School is part of a large project organized in the Western...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]... | | By: 10 Academic Resources Daily | | |
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| Migration and Human Rights | | 2008-07-21 06:14:37 | | (source)
This post is kind of a summary of the stuff I’ve written about international migration and how it is relevant to human rights. I’ve tried to put it all in a simple drawing:
The darker the kind of grey, the more precarious is the rights situation of the people involved. Citizens typically enjoy the best human [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (96): Modern Slavery | | 2008-07-18 10:32:46 | | (copyright Monte Wolverton)
Slavery was officially abolished worldwide at the 1927 Slavery Convention. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”.
Slavery is illegal everywhere and yet it still exists everywhere. Experts estimate that today [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Story (5): 1984 | | 2008-07-18 10:32:30 | | (source)
Excerpt from Orwell’s 1984:
There was an outburst of squeals from the cage. It seemed to reach Winston from far away. The rats were fighting; they were trying to get at each other through the partition. He heard also a deep groan of despair. That, too, seemed to come from outside himself.
O’Brien picked up the cage, [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (50): The Second Coming | | 2008-07-18 10:30:13 | | The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (49): The Slave’s Lament | | 2008-07-18 10:29:41 | | The Slave’s Lament, Robert Burns
It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthrall
For the lands of Virginia-ginia O;
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more,
And alas! I am weary, weary O!
Torn from &c.
All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia-ginia O;
There streams for [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (48): The White House | | 2008-07-18 10:29:11 | | The White House, Claude McKay
Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (50): Poverty and Economic Growth | | 2008-07-18 05:13:55 | | (source)
Economic growth is the increase in value of the goods and services produced by an economy or a country. It is the percent rate of increase from one year to the next in gross domestic product or GDP of an economy or a country. In order to correct for the population sizes of different economies [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (82): African Americans | | 2008-07-17 15:33:15 | | (source)
President Theodore Roosevelt’s invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage and an insult in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the nomination of an African-American to be [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| CfA: New MA in Human Rights and Genocide Studies | | 2008-07-13 11:41:00 | | A consortium of European universities is pleased to announce the start of a new joint post-graduate degree programme in human rights and genocide studies. The programme aims to provide participants...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]... | | By: 10 Academic Resources Daily | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (78): Honor Killings | | 2008-07-13 08:23:36 | | The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions. Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights activist
An honor killing is a murder, carried out by a family to punish a female family member who has supposedly brought dishonor on the family. The acts which are the cause of [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (77): Civil Disobedience | | 2008-07-13 08:23:14 | | (source: http://www.freewebs.com/phamho/literature.html)
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil disobedience is a dangerous thing. Laws are [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (76): Prerequisites for Democracy | | 2008-07-13 04:15:58 | | (source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/)
There are numerous examples of countries which do not meet a number of supposed cultural “preconditions” for democracy, and which nonetheless have managed to achieve a surprisingly high level of democratic stability. The chief example of this is India, which is neither rich and highly industrialized nor nationally integrated, nor Protestant, and which nonetheless [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (48): Resource Curse | | 2008-07-12 03:27:34 | | (source: http://solitaireinternational.wordpress.com/2007/05/)
Why do countries with lots of natural resources tend to do worse than countries with less resource wealth, both in terms of economic growth and in political, social and human rights terms? We see that countries which own lots of natural resources such as diamonds, oil or other valuables that are found in the [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (75): Real and Normative Universality of Human Rights | | 2008-07-11 03:27:26 | | No doubt the commitment of many countries to human rights is less than authentic and whole-hearted. Yet, the fact of the commitment, that it is enshrined in a constitution, and that it is confirmed in an international instrument are not to be dismissed lightly. Even hypocrisy may sometimes deserve one cheer for it confirms the [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (95): Waterboarding | | 2008-07-10 03:43:23 | | (copyright http://www.rall.com/)
Waterboarding is an old torture technique from the Spanish Inquisition. It consists of immobilizing the “target” on an inclined board, head down, with cloth covering his or her face. Pouring water over the face simulates drowning. The victim inhales water, and is convinced that he or she is drowning and about to die. As [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| San Francisco Gays declare independence from Human Rights Campaign | | 2008-07-09 08:33:58 | | It looks like San Francisco gay activists are declaring independence from the HRC.
This Saturday, July 12 at noon, gay activists in San Francisco will “celebrate independence” from the Human Rights Campaign by giving out rainbow flag stickers in front of the HRC store in the Castro as a “symbol of LGBT liberation.” They encourage former [...]... | | By: SF Blogg | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (46): Religious Liberty | | 2008-07-08 10:41:43 | | (source)
Religious liberty or the freedom of religion and belief is a human right. It is the right to be protected against coercion in matters of religion, to be free to practice and profess a religion of your choice, in private as well as in public, to change your religion, or to practice no religion at [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (74): Democracy or Experts? | | 2008-07-08 05:12:36 | | The proper judge of the expert is not another expert, but the user: The warrior and not the blacksmith for the sword, the horseman and not the saddler for the saddle. And evidently, for all public (common) affairs, the user, and thus the best judge, is the polis. Cornelius Castoriadis
The best method of choice is [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (73): Equality of Opportunity | | 2008-07-07 04:24:40 | | (source: http://www.al3x.net/)
Those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system. In all sectors of society there should be roughly equal prospects of culture and achievement for everyone similarly motivated [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (94): Types of Equality | | 2008-07-07 04:21:31 | | (copyright by Bill Mauldin)
Here’s a short overview of different types of equality (I’ll come back to this in future posts):
1. Equality before the law
This concept is linked to the concept of non-discrimination. Laws must be equal for everybody and should not discriminate between people. Everyone should be protected and punished by the law in the [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (72): Gender Discrimination | | 2008-07-07 03:42:13 | | The inequality of the sexes has deprived society of a vast pool of talent. If women had the free use of their faculties along with the same prizes and encouragements as men, there would be a doubling of the mass of mental faculties available for the higher service of humanity. Every restraint on freedom of [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (71): Democratic Peace | | 2008-07-05 05:39:15 | | “In an increasingly interdependent world, Americans have a growing stake in how countries govern, or misgovern, themselves. The larger and more close-knit the community of nations that choose democratic forms of government, the safer and more prosperous Americans will be, since democracies are demonstrably more likely to maintain their international commitments, less likely to engage [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (45): Health | | 2008-07-04 04:49:34 | | This post focuses on health and health care. I already wrote posts on the specific subjects of infant mortality, maternal mortality and life expectancy and will not come back to these in the current post.
Health is a human rights issue in two respects.
First, people have a right to health care and health insurance. Article 25 of [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (47): Refugee | | 2008-07-04 02:10:38 | | Time for one of my own:
Refugee (2), FIlip Spagnoli
I’m a stranger, like hope in a world that doesn’t change
or change in a world that doesn’t hope.
And like all strangers I wash my hands separately,
and I scratch my own back,
and I no longer wonder ’bout the double meaning of “asylum”
‘cos there is none:
you have to be [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (44): Dehumanization | | 2008-07-03 08:34:42 | | Here’s a small catalogue of examples of dehumanization, of the ways in which humans try to exclude others from humanity, to deny them equality, to ridicule them, to render them objects in their plan, instruments for their advancement or pleasure. It ranges from the harmless national stereotypes and political humor, to the incitement of genocide. [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (93): Crimes Against Humanity | | 2008-07-03 05:54:26 | | This is from the infamous Nazi newspaper of Julius Streicher, Der Sturmer, from 1934. The cartoon praises the Nazi Ministry of Culture for removing Jewish teachers from German classrooms. Streicher was convicted at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity and hanged in 1946.
A crime against humanity is a large scale atrocity against a body of people, such [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (43): Genocide | | 2008-07-02 09:21:21 | | (photo showing the excavation of mass graves in Srebrenica)
Genocide is the deliberate, systematic and violent destruction of a group (an ethnic, racial, religious, national or political group). This destruction can take many forms:
the outright murder of (the majority of) the members of the group
inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about destruction
measures intended to prevent births
systematic rape as [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (42): Discrimination | | 2008-07-02 06:06:34 | | I’ve written before on discrimination, especially gender discrimination (also here) and discrimination based on sexual orientation. This post tackles the subject more generally.
Discrimination, in its non-political and non-legal sense, simply means the recognition of differences. In the political and legal sense, it means unjustifiable differences in treatment between groups of people, most often the unjustifiable [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (70): Humanity | | 2008-07-02 01:40:17 | | The decay of decency in the modern age, the rebellion against law and good faith, the treatment of human beings as things, as the mere instruments of power and ambition, is without a doubt the consequence of the decay of the belief in man as something more than an animal animated by highly conditioned reflexes [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (41): Xenophobia | | 2008-06-30 09:04:59 | | (copyright http://www.davidlachapelle.com)
Xenophobia, the contempt or fear of strangers or foreign people, often people of a different race or ethnic group, is not considered to be a disease like other “phobias”. It is part of a political struggle against adversaries, much like racism is. (Whereas racism is certainly xenophobic, xenophibia doesn’t have to be racist; it [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (69): Religious Liberty | | 2008-06-30 03:23:27 | | “False doctrine should be checked on its first appearance; the civil power should unite with the church in punishing those who dared to attack the established religion, and such only were punished by the Inquisition.” Samuel Johnson, aka Dr Johnson.
“Religiously wrong, a motive of legislation which can never be too earnestly protested against. Deorum injuriae [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Story (3): Sex Strike | | 2008-06-27 04:10:30 | |
Abbreviated excerpt from Lysistrata by the Greek playwright Aristophanes (a comic play on the sex strike led by the women of Greece in a successful attempt to force their husbands to stop making war. The men, suffering from the absence of sex, agree to make peace):
Lysistrata (one of the women): “If all women join together [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (68): Aids Disaster | | 2008-06-27 04:03:43 | | HIV/Aids is the disaster that keeps on killing. Day after day, families are destroyed, economies wiped out and communities crushed. DAVID ANDREWS, chairman of the Irish Red Cross, launching a report to recommend that the international community declare the HIV/Aids epidemic a “global disaster”
Some facts about the AIDS epidemic are here. The number of people [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Lowongan di UNDP (PROGRAMME MANAGER - HUMAN RIGHTS, LEGAL AND JUSTICE SECTOR REFORM (INTERNATIONAL) | | 2008-06-23 19:56:40 | | (lowongan yang berkaitan dengan PBB dan UNDP terbaru bulan ini, silakan lihat posisi lainnya di Klik BLOG INI)
PROGRAMME MANAGER - HUMAN RIGHTS, LEGAL AND JUSTICE SECTOR REFORM (INTERNATIONAL)
Location : Jakarta, INDONESIA
Application Deadline : 07-Jul-08
Type of Contract : ALD International
Post Level : ALD-3
Languages Required :
English
Duration of Initial Contract : 1 year (extendable)
Background
UNDP Indonesia’s mission is [...]... | | By: masdhenk | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (92): Public opposition to migration | | 2008-06-23 08:53:52 | | (copyright http://www.claybennett.com/)
The public in most developed countries (or rich countries) is often opposed to immigration:
(source: http://pewresearch.org/)
There are two main reasons for this opposition. Opinions about immigration are closely linked to perceptions about threats to a country’s culture, for example the language. We see a lot of anxiety in the US about English as the first language and the [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (40): Asylum | | 2008-06-23 08:23:53 | | This post on asylum is a follow-up on a previous post on refugees, which was in itself a follow-up on a post about the broader topic of migration.
Asylum is a form of protection that allows individuals to remain in a country, provided that they meet the definition of a refugee. Eventually, they may become permanent [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (91): Corporate democracy | | 2008-06-23 04:12:07 | | Given the importance of work and production in the life of individuals, it is justified to give them some say in the way in which the means of production are used. The owners of the means of production should not be entitled to decide unilaterally on the conditions, organization, purposes, processes and meaning of production. [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Story (1): The judicial system | | 2008-06-21 14:13:32 | | Excerpt from “In the Penal Colony” by Franz Kafka (abbreviated)
(The story is about a settlement where they have a very peculiar judicial system, and a horrible execution method. The dialogue is between a visitor and the local self-styled “judge” annex executioner. They are talking about a soldier about to be executed).
Visitor: ‘Does he know his [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights in Morocco | | 2008-06-20 17:20:00 | | Since King Mohammed VI acceded to the throne in 1999, Morocco has made important progress in promoting democracy and respect for human rights - Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. In its annual report 2007 about the situation of human rights in the world, issued on Thursday in Geneva, the observatory, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), underlined that "the reform of the Family Code (moudawana) in 2004 was one of the reforms undertaken by Morocco." "The introduction of legislative reforms and the establishment of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (Instance équité et reconciliation - IER) in January 2004 have also been marks of the profound change the country has experienced in recent years," said the report. The document recalled that the goal of this commission was to provide a global policy for the issue of the serious human rights violations committed between... | | By: THE VIEW FROM FEZ | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (67): Economic freedom | | 2008-06-20 09:13:21 | | “Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world.” Kofi Annan
“Africa must be allowed to trade itself out of poverty.” Bob Geldof
Human rights do not include a right to have economic freedom or to have a free market. [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Commissions: What A Joke | | 2008-06-18 12:08:00 | | When a person speaks of human rights, we'd naturally think of the basic rights granted us like found in our Constitution. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When you hear about a tribunal or commission regarding human rights, you'd expect it to be a court of some sort, defending these sorts of rights.But you'd be wrong.Human Rights Commissions are more akin to what would be found in say, a Stalin or Mao era prison. Forced confessions anyone? And these courts really aren't accountable to anyone. Worse, there really aren't any requirements, like a burden or proof or anything. Their primary, (or better described, ONLY,) reason for existence? Hate crimes. To stamp out hate around the globe.Not found amongst the long list of countries that have joined in on the mock-judicial system , is America. Thank goodness for that. In America, we still have, (for now at least) a little thing called "freedom of speech." No matter how much I despise what you say, or how much someone... | | By: Hoopy Frood Dude | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (38): Millennium Development Goals | | 2008-06-17 06:24:33 | | I’ve mentioned the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) before. This post gives some more data.
The United Nations agreed the 8 MDGs in 2000, to be reached in 2015. Now, half-way to that deadline, there is progress, but not all regions in the world are doing equally well. However, even in the poorest region - sub-Saharan Africa [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (37): Maternal mortality | | 2008-06-17 04:19:20 | | Maternal death, or maternal mortality, is the death of a woman during or shortly after a pregnancy. More than half a million women die during pregnancy or childbirth every year, and many millions suffer from inadequately treated complications. About half of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and about one third occur in South Asia – [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (36): Support for human rights | | 2008-06-16 09:57:02 | | In a previous post, I gave some data showing the quasi-universal popular support for democracy as the best form of government.
In the current post, I try to do the same for some aspect of other, non-political human rights, such as the freedom of religion, free speech and press, and fair judiciary.
The data are taken from [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (35): Support for democracy and political rights | | 2008-06-16 04:27:35 | | Democracy and human rights are first of all a conviction and a state of mind. If the people cannot be persuaded to accept democracy and human rights, then the case is lost, even when there is prosperity, when the culture is beneficial to the development of democracy and human rights, and when the necessary laws [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (44): The Elf King | | 2008-06-15 03:50:21 | | The Elf king (Der Erlkönig), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Who rides so late through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He has the little one well in the arm
He holds him secure, he holds him warm.
“My son, why hide your face in fear?”
“See you not, Father, the Elf king?
The Elf king with crown and [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (43): Musee des beaux arts | | 2008-06-14 16:19:40 | | (Photograph: Jane Bown)
Musee des beaux arts, W.H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (56): Habeas corpus and Guantanamo | | 2008-06-13 01:57:53 | | “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on or off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this court, say what the law is.” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the US Supreme Court, [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (34): Arms trade | | 2008-06-12 07:51:29 | | This post on the international arms trade is a follow-up of a previous post on the evolution of war in the world and of one on the evolution of military budgets and defense spending.
Again, it’s useless to oppose trade in or production of arms in general. People and countries have to be able to defend [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human rights in Burma | | 2008-06-12 05:02:07 | | "As hold-ups continue in the supply of foreign aid to Myanmar, Asian leaders have been urged to pressure the country's military rulers into taking swift action to address a growing humanitarian catastrophe. Amnesty International believes that by deliberately blocking life-sustaining aid, the government of Myanmar may be violating the right of the population to life, food and health."(in http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/asian-governments-urged-pressure-myanmar-20080513) Blogging in Luxembourg. In engrish.... | | By: :u:b:i:k:u:o: | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (33): Military spending | | 2008-06-12 04:52:16 | | This is a follow-up of a previous post on the evolution of war in the world. Whereas the number of wars and their intensity seem to decrease over the last decades, the same cannot be said of the arms trade and the defense budgets. This makes it difficult to hope that the statistics on warfare [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (32): War | | 2008-06-11 07:36:31 | | Since the beginning of recorded history, around 3600 BC, over 14.500 major wars have killed close to four billion people, a number that not so long ago equaled the whole of humanity. Since the Second World War, there have been on average about 30 armed conflicts ongoing every year. 90 per cent of casualties in [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (40): Questions From A Worker Who Reads | | 2008-06-08 10:17:39 | | Questions From A Worker Who Reads, Bertolt Brecht
Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times? In what houses
of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (39): On The Critical Attitude | | 2008-06-07 14:33:27 | | On The Critical Attitude, Bertolt Brecht
The critical attitude
Strikes many people as unfruitful
That is because they find the state
Impervious to their criticism
But what in this case is an unfruitful attitude
Is merely a feeble attitude. Give criticism arms
And states can be demolished by it.
Canalising a river
Grafting a fruit tree
Educating a person
Transforming a state
These are instances of fruitful [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Poem (38): Tortures | | 2008-06-07 03:03:12 | | Tortures, Wislawa Szymborska
Nothing has changed.
The body is susceptible to pain,
it must eat and breathe air and sleep,
it has thin skin and blood right underneath,
an adequate stock of teeth and nails,
its bones are breakable, its joints are stretchable.
In tortures all this is taken into account.
Nothing has changed.
The body shudders as it shuddered
before the founding of Rome [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (89): Privacy | | 2008-06-06 08:12:26 | | (source: www.boligan.com)
I’ve written about privacy before on this blog (here, here and here), with a particular attention to the importance of private property for privacy. The current post deals more generally with privacy.
There’s no light without darkness. By recognizing the right to keep certain thoughts, relationships and communications secret, one automatically recognizes the right to [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Facts (29): International private charity | | 2008-06-06 03:22:33 | | Economic rights, such as the right to be free from poverty, should not be viewed as primarily the business of states, otherwise we will lose the benefits of solidarity which results from spontaneous mutual assistance. Allowing economic rights to be realised at the level of people’s relationships will strengthen solidarity, feelings of common humanity and [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Quote (54): Refugees | | 2008-06-04 05:13:43 | | In countries where people have to flee their homes because of persecution and violence, political solutions must be found, peace and tolerance restored, so that refugees can return home. In my experience, going home is the deepest wish of most refugees. Angelina Jolie
In a previous post, I talked a bit on the problem of migration [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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| Human Rights Cartoon (88): Citizenship | | 2008-06-03 08:49:17 | | (artist unknown, source: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/feature-commentary/20030825/202/503)
In a previous post on migration, I briefly mentioned that one of the problems faced by migrants is their exclusion from politics in the country they migrated to. I will now argue that there is some kind of justification for this exclusion.
Political rights are rights that guarantee participation, directly and through freely [...]... | | By: PAP Blog | | |
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